I was watching a rerun of Craig Ferguson’s old talk show. Craig was talking about the reason why he was leaving the show. He felt he had done it enough and was ready to move on. So Kimmel says this, or words to this effect. “I was driving to the Playboy Mansion and dreading having to be there. Then I realized that I dread everything.”

The ego dreads everything because it always feels underprepared in one way or another. It actually is, being made up of nothing but doubts and fears it tries to convert into certainty and self-assurance. That self-doubt is what advertising is built on. It sows the same old seeds in our heads—that we are almost okay, but would be helped by trying a little bit harder to gain approval. It never works.

That is the situation, as Vernon Howard would say. Then what is the solution? I am taking a shot in the dark, but I think that seeing the situation clearly is to already be moving out of it. Why keep trying harder for people that are doing the same thing you are doing. They won’t admit it, of course. But you are reading this because you are tired of falling into the same old traps again and again.

Be yourself. You already are. Might as well get some mileage out of it.

Vicki Woodyard